Today’s News

Thirteen Clues About the End of Lost: Does Ilana Age? Who's Coming Back? Who Isn't?

Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse are known for cryptic answers. So it was a real treat for fans at the Paley Festival's Lost panel this weekend when they said a few things that sounded — weirdly enough — pretty straightforward. We've culled the 13 best clues from the discussion, in which Lindelof, Cuse and a few of the show's stars talked about who's returning, what old mystery might soon be solved, and the sideways version of reality in which Flight 815 landed just fine in Los Angeles. Needless to say, spoiler alert.

• Prior to the panel, the producers previewed a few minutes of Tuesday's episode. A scene set in the Temple featured Sayid (Naveen Andrews) packing up to leave, because, as he tells Miles, "Apparently, I'm evil." Then crazy-wigged Claire (Emilie de Ravin) enters and tells Dogen that "He" wants to speak with him, without saying who "He" is.

• So who should we expect to see again this season and who's not getting a comeback? Ben's childhood friend, Annie, is a no, the producers said. Matthew Abbadon (Lance Reddick) is dead and not coming back, and neither is Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agebaje). Here's some consolation: Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) will return, along with Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) and Vincent the dog.

• As we've reported before, Richard will get an episode focused on him. Nestor Carbonell said the script for the episode told him "who the hell I am." Lindelof added, "For the record, I'm 36 years old and I would love to get a script that tells me who the hell I am."

• When asked if Ilana (Zuleikha Robinson) does not age like Richard, Lindelof teased, "Ilana and Richard will have things to say to each other and about each other in the near future." Right... but does she age?

• No one would say whether Disney is planning a Lost ride, but Lindelof has an idea of what it could be. "Just put people in a dark room, spin them around for a minute, have them walk out of the room, punch them in the face and say, 'You've just had the Lost experience.'"

• If you recall the tropical bird that might have said "Hurley" in the Season 1 finale, your long memory may soon be rewarded. "That is on our list of things to explain," said Lindelof.

• The producers hope to bring Walt back. It's just that the actor who plays him, Malcolm David Kelley, is much taller now. "We are actually working on a way to try to bring Walt back before Lost is all said and done," Cuse said. Want to know how he'll come back? "He'll be riding on the Hurley bird," joked Lindelof.

• Did Jacob really have a list? Not necessarily. "The idea that Jacob had a list that he furnished to the Others or to Ben is up for debate," Lindelof said. He suggested that Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) might have just invented the idea of the list to get Jack to operate on him.

• When asked if we'll find out what happened to Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) and Bernard (Sam Anderson), Lindelof said slyly, "In which timeline? We already found out what happened to Rose in sideways. We might be seeing Bernard in sideways." Will we see them on the island? The producers declined to say.

• In the sideways world, Jack is married to someone we have met before, the producers said. Cuse shook his head no when Lindelof yelled, "It's Sara [Julie Bowen]!" Could Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) be David's mother?

• Was Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) lying when he said someone was coming to the island? Nope, though the producers would not reveal who it is.

• "We're writing the finale right now," said Cuse. "We have an architecture for the end of the show, but on a character level there's room for discovery. There's a destination that we're getting to, but there will definitely be things we discover and moments, rather than seismic changes, in our game plan."

• When asked to describe the final three episodes in one word, Lindelof said, "Water."